Noah Miles

The origins and life of Noah Miles, first husband of Elizabeth Jane Marshall, are something of a mystery.

There are no known records of Noah's birth. However, assuming he was at least age 18 at the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Jane Marshall, he would have been born sometime before 1818.

On 26.Sep.1837, Noah married Elizabeth Jane Marshall. The marriage took place in Jackson County, OH.

There are no known records of Noah's death. There is evidence that he had a son, Zachariah A. Miles, born 15.Feb.1838, but we cannot be sure that Noah was alive at the time of Zachariah's birth. While census records from 1840 do not provide the names of household members other than head, the count data suggests that Elizabeth and her young son were living in the household of Elizabeth's parents in 1840. Elizabeth Jane married a second time in 1843, indicating that Noah Miles was known or presumed to be dead by that time.

There are records of a Noah Miles who married a Matilda Pierce in Athens County in 1838, and there are number of family trees on Ancestry.com having him as the same Noah Miles who married Elizabeth Jane Marshall. This assumes either a divorce (beween Noah and Elizabeth) or a bigamous marriage (of Noah to Matilda), either of which would be difficult to accomplish at the time and place. Divorce was rare, being allowed on very limited grounds and requiring time and money to accomplish. In the early 19th century, death was far more common than divorce. Sometimes an unhappy marriage would lead to separation. However, even if Noah and Elizabeth had separated, in order to marry Jacob Hoober in 1843, Elizabeth would have needed to claim (under oath) that she had not previously married or that her first husband was dead. While this is possible, it seems unlikely. Given that there were a number of Miles families in the area, it seems more likely that there was more than one man named Noah Miles of the right age to have married Elizabeth Jane.